How Rory Mcllroy has changed the face of professional golf

Three years ago this month, Tiger Woods was on the prowl for his 14th major title.

After taking a one shot lead into the fourth round at Tory Pines, in his hometown of San Diego, CA. Woods started to struggle on that incredible Sunday. He was rumored to have injured his knee that day, and couldn't close out a charge by Rocco Mediate, who went into the clubhouse -1 under par, and a slim lead over Woods.

Woods was able to make up for the dip, by scoring on par on 18-to tie Mediate, and force a playoff Monday morning.

That Monday was the last time we have seen Woods as the hero. Limping around the course, Woods, again came back to tie Mediate after 18 holes, forcing a Sudden Death playoff that same day. In Sudden Death, Woods scored a par 4 to win the tournament by a very small margin. The lasting image from the tournament being Woods clutching his young daughter in his hands afterwards.

Since that time it has been a wild ride for Woods. Even though he didn't win a major in 2009, he was still winning smaller tournaments, and hanging around in all four majors. Then the unbelievable happened; over Thanksgiving stories started to come out about Tiger's infidelity.

The 15 prostitutes that Woods had slept with brought irreparable damage to his once squeaky clean image. Woods was forced to divorce, and since that time Woods has battled mental anguish and leg injuries. He missed parts of the 2010 season, even skipping a major. When he played, he was the shell of his former self.

Now in 2011, Woods is likely out for the year with knee and Achilles tendon injuries. At 35, Woods might be done.

Enter in Rory Mcllroy. The young Irish kid, raised eyebrows with his first three rounds at the Masters in April, only to blow the four shot lead on Sunday. Then this weekend, Mcllroy put together a Woods-like performance, shooting -16 under par for the tournament and winning by eight shots.

He made a difficult course look easy.

Now golf has a new superstar. With Woods spending much of 2010 out of competition, golf really suffered -- nobody cared as much, and people wondered when the next "great thing" would come. Fans could look to golf's other aging superstar Phil Mickelson. He is the antithesis of Tiger; an very down to earth man, who dedicated last year's Masters victory to his wife, who was recovering from breast cancer.

But at 40, and only four major titles, how much does Phil have left? Ernie Els, Vijay Singh, Davis Love III, Sergio Garcia are all Woods contemporaries who have grown older, and are not as good as they used to be. No, golf needed someone younger to take the sport by storm the way Woods did in 1997.

Turns out they didn't have to wait long. Mcllroy looks like the real deal. His performance in the last two majors was so impressive that even his contemporaries are talking Mcllroy up as the best golfer ever, who has a better shot at Jack Nicklaus record 18 major wins. This was the kid's first.

Time will only tell, whether this was just a fairy tale, or the coronation of the new king of golf. David Duval was supposed to be that next great golfer back in the mid 1990s, then Tiger came around and took away all the attention. Duval slipped away into obscurity, as Woods became the dominate player of the past decade.

So, who knows how good Mcllroy will be a year from now, two years from now or five years from now. But if the Masters and U.S. Open are any indication, then we will hear from the 22-year old more often in the years to come.

Maybe when Woods does return physically and mentally fit enough to play, maybe then we can get a showdown between the two -- that would be great television.